Hammers see positives in defeat

Mark Noble has played down the significance of West Ham’s loss to Watford and feels they could take plenty of positives from the game.

The Hammers were two goals up heading towards half-time on Saturday but conspired to throw their advantage away as they eventually lost 4-2 to the Hornets in the second Premier League game at the London Stadium.

Despite letting a two-goal lead slip, Noble believes there was a lot to enjoy about the West Ham performance, claiming the showings of Dimitri Payet and Manuel Lanzini should give the fans cause for optimism.

Noble told the West Ham website: “That is the best we have played for a long while, in the first half. A couple of mistakes have cost us and we couldn’t recover.

“If we can go in 2-0 up at half-time it is a different game, but the mistakes have cost us in the end.

“There is a long way to go and we have to stay positive.

“We got punished and have to learn our lessons. We have still got new players coming in learning the league and we have a lot of players in their second season

“We have got players coming back from injury like Manu and Dimi. We have got to take the positives and played fantastic in the first half, but we conceded silly goals.”